The First Step

As is the case across college basketball, players on the bench have rituals when their teammates sink big shots. At Boston College, a 3-pointer is met by the same celebration. Sophomore Aser Ghebremichael will extend his left arm to the sky and run three fingers from his right hand up and down his arm to the sky. It's just one of those things that tend to stand out when a big play is made, and it's recognition by teammates for what's happening on the court.

On Sunday against Syracuse, Ghebremichael probably needed to ice his arm.

The Eagles sank 3-pointer after 3-pointer, 16 in all for a new Conte Forum record, while recording 28 assists, tied for second most on the Conte Forum floor, in a runaway 96-81 victory over the Orange. They never trailed, building an 11-point lead in a first half that featured just 99 seconds of tied basketball, before blowing the score open with 52 second-half points. Winning their ACC opener for the first time in six years, it decisively answered some questions about the team while continuing to establish a new cornerstone foundation.

"A lot of things have to happen," BC head coach Jim Christian said. "Guys have to get to the right spots, guys catching the ball have to make the right decisions, and then you have to make shots. I thought early in the game, we did a good job of scoring and building confidence in transition, and any time you have 28 assists, guys are making the right decisions. I thought Connor (Tava) did a great job of getting the ball in the middle and finding the right guys. I thought Nik (Popovic) finished inside. Ky (Bowman), Jerome (Robinson), and Jordan (Chatman) made open shots. I'm proud of them; that's about as well as you can execute against a zone (defense) team."

Even though it can be surprising to some, the victory was hardly unexpected. Over the previous four games, the Eagles were 3-1, including a pair of wins over basketball power conference teams (Auburn and Providence). In their one defeat, by five to Fairfield, they still scored 83 points, which in turn could give rise to the thought that this team was simply ready to start their ACC schedule. Syracuse entered the game knowing what BC did well but simply couldn't stop it, and the Eagles played every bit the role of a dominant team.

"I thought they were good," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "We've watched clips from all of their games, but I was able to watch the whole game against Providence. They move the ball, they get good shots, and they make them; they did in that game (against the Friars). They have very good shooters, and they move the ball into good places. I don't think our defense adjusted very well, and we let them have the baseline pass from the high post four or five times. Then we allowed them to throw it back out to the shooters. Those guys are good shooters, and they're going to make those shots. I don't care who they're playing or when they're playing, if you give them those shots, they're going to make them."

Regardless of X's and O's, the win still could be surprising to people who hadn't seen or who couldn't pay attention to what was developing in Chestnut Hill. Last year's winless conference schedule is a factual part of history, and nothing can change that. It's a very public reminder of the combination of bad luck, bad bounces, and bad games that can happen through the season. It's also last year, and last year is over. To an extent, though, it's now a necessary part of turning the corner, which the Eagles officially did on Sunday when 2017 opened, quite literally, with knocking talk of 2016 out of the room.

"The past is the past," Christian said. "I understand why people have to ask the question (about winning our first ACC game), but it means absolutely nothing to anyone in our locker room. None of those guys played in those games; I coached them, so it means something to me because I watched these guys celebrate. There were seven ACC games this weekend, so seven teams are 1-0 and seven teams are 0-1. I don't really worry about the past; I fully understand it, and I understand why people have to talk about it. But we don't have to buy into it, and we don't."

As the schedule moves forward, there will still be growing pains. The ACC is an absolutely brutal gauntlet of teams, and a growing program is going to face down monumental challenges night after night. Seven teams are currently ranked inside the AP top 25 with two more receiving votes. There's also a return bout with Syracuse in two weeks at the Carrier Dome, a team BC has now beaten only twice since the Orange joined the ACC.

The Eagles' next two games are indicative of that challenge when they travel south into college basketball's heartbeat and heartland. Their next two games are against Wake Forest and Duke on Tuesday and Saturday, on Tobacco Road.

"Obviously it's going to be big to play in North Carolina," Bowman, a Havelock, N.C., native, said, "but I feel that we just want to go on the road and achieve a win. That's the only thing we want to think about."

Boston College Athletics

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